~ capturing my families' memories

Update about Dogger and Lennox

Since last week I’ve answered several questions that I had about who was Peter Dogger. See previous entry for more background.

In 1809 Pieter Hertjesz Dogger married his cousin Dieuwertje Jacobs Dogger. They had 6 children, one of whom was Jacob who was born in 1813, who was Peter Dogger’s father. After Pieter and Dieuwertje died a larg group of family immigrated on a ship named Catherine to the US and arrived in September 1850. On that ship was my Peter Dogger along with his father, Jacob, and mother Meis Hendriks Groot. The group seemed to eventually settle in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

By 1860 Peter, then 12 years old, was living with Abram, Mary & John Lennox. I believe that Mary was Peter’s mother Meis. My guess, at this point, is that Jacob died and Mary remarried and Peter called Abram Lennox father. Peter lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan most of his life. With his first wife, Nellie C. J. Van Driele, daughter of Ary and Katharine Gernler, they had 2 daughters who both died in infancy. Nellie died before her parents in 1894 and Peter married Anna Werkman Vande Reit in 1896. Peter died in October 1917 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I’m not sure how any of this information can help me in locating information about Isaac Brown but I have learned a few more pieces about him. He was living in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1860, listed as Isaac Leunis. As a 22 year old farm laborer he lived with William F. Miller, his wife Abigail and, I presume their daughter, Abigail, who was 17. Due to the fairly close ages of Isaac and Abigail I found that she married someone else a few years later.

I have found 2 Isaac Lennox’s who married in the time frame that I believe my Isaac would have married the first time. 1) Isaac Lenox married Fannie Mellema Feb. 10, 1861 in Allegan, Michigan and 2) Isaac M. Lenox married Sarah C. LaCount Dec 25, 1867 in Macomb, Michigan. Allegan County was originally part of Kalamazoo so I think that I’ll focus on the marriage with Fannie Mellema for now. Lennox seems to be an uncommon name during the late 1800’s and often misspelled in inconsistent ways. I’m going to see if I can learn more about this name as it relates to people coming from Holland.

In trying to find any siblings, aunts or uncles of Isaac’s, I did find a Jane Lennus who was 18 years old born in Holland and was a servant in the David Peuson (Parson?) (born in Connecticut) household. I have no additional information on her yet. Also,in Peter’s letter he referenced 2 John’s. One was brother John who helped take care of Father during his last days and the other John he said that Mother had written to but had not ever received a reply. It is unfortunate to not know the last names of these fellas. A John Lennox, lived with Abram, Mary and Peter in 1860 and he was 1 year older than Abram making his birth year about 1812. This John could have been his brother or some other relation. I’ve been trying to locate them both as John Dogger and John Lennox.

I’ve tried to transcribe the last sentence in Peter’s letter to Isaac but it is difficult to read so I’m including that portion. Throughout the letter there is almost always a letter that was cut off the first word on the left. Because Peter ended his letter with this rather than signing it, I would like to know what it means. Can you read it? Do you know what it says?

Update: Today (1/26/09) a very gracious gentleman that my mother-in-law knows translated this for me. It says: Well done am very anxious to to hear a little more about you and your wife and also of your children.

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3 thoughts on “Update about Dogger and Lennox”

My greatgrandfather was a different Pieter (Peter) Dogger but from the same family line. So far we have dates & names back to around 1606. I am interested in connecting with as many Doggers as I can as I am doing more research as to what they did & where they went after leaving Texel. All Doggers in Australia are related and I have been amazed at how often I have found members in diferent branches who actually look alike

Llynda — As you can tell from my blog I do not know anything about the Dogger family and Peter was either a half or step brother based on what I can determine. Additionally, my ancestor was born with the surname Lennox but changed his surname to Brown when he was adult. The family tradition is that after Isaac had served in the Civil War he changed his name to Brown because he was raised by people named Brown. The letter referenced in this blog post suggests that there was a problem in Isaac’s relationship with his father. I would be thrilled to learn more about this Dogger family especially as it relates to my Isaac.

Welcome!

Delving into family stories, documents and photos is what I enjoy! Relative Storyboard: capturing family memories, is my blog where I share and encourage discussion about my findings. Often I only have tidbits of information that I piece together in hopes that one day I'll have a more complete storyboard.
I hope you find something of interest and I need your comments, if you do. So, if you have questions or if we share an ancestor I really want to hear from you. Leave me a comment or contact me at kayzie31 at gmail.com.